Profit driving up gas prices at Regina stations

Regina motorists are likely to have a lighter wallet following the next time they fill up their vehicle with gas.

Gas prices have shot up 16 cents in Regina since Tuesday afternoon.

As of Thursday night, Gasbuddy.com said 15 gas stations in Regina are charging 84.9 cents per litre. Seven stations were charging somewhere between 70 to 80 cents per litre while eight are charging below 70 cents per litre. On Tuesday afternoon, the highest price was 68.9 cents per litre.

According to Gasbuddy.com, the average price in Regina is 79.4 cents per litre, while the average in Saskatchewan is 76.3 cents per litre and the national average is 87.0 cents per litre.

“So one of the things that’s going on right now is that they raised up prices in two jumps by 10 cents per litre each, up by 20 cents per litre,” explained Jason Toews, co-founder of Gasbuddy.com. “Essentially, the wholesale price has gone up and they’re making more margins right now.”

Toews told News Talk Radio the wholesale price recently increased 12 cents but some stations are hiking prices even higher that to make more money. Toews added he expects prices to drop about four or five cents per litre within the next few days.

Roger McKnight, an analyst with Enpro, agreed that a price war has increased gas prices right across the prairies.

“It’s not only the Queen City,” McKnight told the CJME Morning Show Friday.

“Price wars normally take up a couple of city blocks and are over within a week or so, but this latest plunge that you’ve had on the prairies and has gone across provincial lines.”

McKnight says retailers are trying to “restore the market” to increase their profits, and claims that retailers were actually losing money when gas was below 70 cents per litre.

If 84.9 cents per litre seems high to some people right now, Toews said just wait until April or May. He expects prices to jump to 110 cents per litre or 120 cents per litre at that time.

McKnight disagreed, saying he doesn’t expect prices at the pumps will go up that much due to high inventories of gasoline in the US midwest coupled with the OPEC freeze which McKnight says seems to be falling through.